So "Voyager" has passed out of the Solar System and out of our
collective minds except for those contemporaries like me. The 50th anniversary of the
Kennedy assassination produced two weeks of television coverage that tapered
off in the week before November 22nd. America will now get back to her addiction to
game shows, gory crime scene investigations, the latest sex scandal, sports,
and assorted TV mush. The assassination
coverage was but a brief interlude the networks couldn’t ignore; there are too
many contemporaries left. I thought it
would be instructive to summarize what we saw in November, 2013.
50 Years of Questions: The Kennedy Assassination (FOX). No interviews with LBJ or Jackie Kennedy. Zapruder
film shown in broken sequence. Mark
Lane’s position was covered. Suggested
there was a front shooter stationed on the west roof of the School Book
Depository.
The Kennedy Assassination: Who Killed Kennedy (FOX). FOX repeatedly
says Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
The Media sentenced someone who hadn’t been tried.
The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination. (National
Geographic Channel) Abraham Zapruder was shown being interviewed, but predictably,
there was no showing of the film’s head shot.
Another film (Muchmore?), taken from the south
side of the street, showed his Kennedy’s head move back and to his left. It surprised me that they would show one without
the other. The Media continued to say
Oswald killed JFK.
JFK: The Smoking Gun.
Its contention is that the Secret Service accidentally shot Kennedy from behind
with an AR-15 with no witnesses. The
Zapruder film was shown three times with the ridiculous interpretation that if
the head is hit from behind, it snaps back. Autopsy was re-enacted.
JFK: The Final Hours
(National Geographic Channel). Portrayed JFK as “just a dad” unabashedly
overlooking any political motive in the killing and who cares what Jackie was
wearing?
The Kennedy Assassination: Conspiracy or Murder? Refreshing contrarian view of Mark Lane in his book, Rush to Judgment. Oswald was not involved. Dr. Cyril Wecht covered a prime motive for
the assassination by the CIA, the plan of the Kennedy Administration to break
the CIA into a thousand pieces.
Bill O’reilly’s Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel). Made for television
drama. Unworthy of the gravity of the
real events. Forgone conclusions and two
hours of manufactured tedium on Oswald’s domestic problems.
Capturing Oswald and
The Kennedy Detail (Military Channel). I think I fell asleep.
JFK: A President Betrayed.
Today’s college students are interviewed for JFK’s impact on them. What does that have to do with solving
America’s most infamous crime?
JFK: Inside the Evidence
(REELZ Channel). Although 22 people smelled the gunpowder on the grassy knoll,
it could have been just a car backfire.
Oliver Stone’s JFK. The best of the Media’s coverage. I’m surprised it was shown.
JFK: American Experience
(PBS). The Cuban angle covered.
The Kennedy Half Century
(PBS). Documentary of the impact and influence of JFK’s life, administration,
and death
Cold Case JFK.
NOVA on PBS television. Lazers and
gizmos in a scientific attempt to refute front shooter. Pristine bullet was legitimate. Grassy knoll shot impossible because their
definition of the grassy knoll was only the pergola area. No mention of the 3X3 storm drain sniper’s
nest at the fence’s union with the overpass. Head snap backward meant JFK was hit
behind, defying physics.
JFK: For the Record
(REELZ Channel). Recitation of obvious facts, politically correct positions, and
benign questions by Judge John R. Tunheim of the Assassination Records Review
Board: old records should have been released years ago; CIA was very
co-operative; Secret Service had a bad day; Zaprudeder film was a big problem;
the autopsy could have been more thorough; the bullet that hit JFK from another
direction is an interesting question; the smell of gunpowder is an interesting
question; and it’s good to hear the theories of other people, but he says the
public will never know.
I
suspect by the time future generations read this in 2063 the real story of the Kennedy
assassination will have been known for decades because all its participants –
the conspirators – are dead. Besides,
the transition from a representative government, apparent to us now in 2013,
will have been completed decades ago. At
the time, the disinformation about the assassination was overwhelming and carried
out for over a half century.
I
have no doubt the U.S. ruling class will have shown itself to be no better than
that of ancient Rome muddling along with obsolete forms of government devoid of
any connection with real people. From
our old perspective in 2013, the 50th anniversary of the
assassination, it’s hard to imagine they could carry on the charade so long. Despite all the strutting and fretting of
what our detractors used to call “conspiracy theorists”, what could we do? We had no power. If I might be so bold as to say for them:
“All we wanted was the truth and for those who killed the President to be
brought to justice.”
